Residential, corporate, government, educational, and institutional users of communication services may desire high bandwidth connections to a communications network in order to send and receive data at high rates of speed. High bandwidth communications may allow users to take advantage of advanced communication capabilities, such as voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) communications, interactive gaming, delivery of high resolution video, such as high definition television (HDTV), as well as the transmission and/or reception of large data files.
Communication service providers, such as telephone companies, cable television companies, etc., may understand that customers want these high bandwidth applications and/or services at a reasonable cost. Past attempts at providing high bandwidth communication channels have included techniques such as integrated services digital network (ISDN), digital subscriber line (DSL), asynchronous digital subscriber line (ASDL) and cable television co-axial cable. Technologies such as these may provide broadband capabilities to an extent. For example, some DSL services may provide up to approximately 5 Mbits/sec of data. Users may, however, demand even higher bandwidths. The above technologies may have inadequate bandwidth for some users and/or these technologies may be relatively expensive to deploy and/or maintain.
Demand for higher bandwidth services, e.g., on the order of up to 500 Mbits/sec or even higher, may cause service providers to look at newer technologies. One such technology is referred to as passive optical networks (PONS). PONS may use optical fibers deployed between a service provider central office, or head end, and one or more end user premises. A service provider may employ a central office, or head end, containing electronic equipment for placing signals onto optical fibers running to user premises. End user premises may employ equipment for receiving optical signals from the optical fibers. In PONS, the central office, or head end, transmission equipment and/or the transmission equipment located at the end user premises may, respectively, use a laser to inject data onto a fiber in a manner that may not require the use of any active components, such as amplifiers between the central office, or head end, and/or the end user premises. In other words, only passive optical components, such as splitters, optical fibers, connectors and/or splices, may be used between a service provider and an end user premises in PONS. PONS may be attractive to service providers because passive networks may be less costly to maintain and/or operate as compared to active optical networks and/or older copper based networks, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN). In addition to possibly being less expensive than other network topologies, PONS may provide sufficient bandwidth to meet a majority of end users' high bandwidth communication needs into the foreseeable future.
In PONS, transmission equipment may transmit signals containing voice, data and/or video over a fiber strand to the premises. An optical fiber may be split using, for example, passive optical splitters so that signals are dispersed from one fiber (the input fiber) to multiple output fibers running to, for example, user premises from a convergence point in the network. An optical fiber routed to a user's premises may be routed via a fiber drop terminal en route to the premises. At the fiber drop terminal, signals appearing on one or more optical fibers may be routed to one or more end user premises. Fiber drop terminals may be mounted in aerial applications, such as near the tops of utility poles, along multi-fiber and/or multi-conductor copper strands suspended between utility poles. Fiber drop terminals may also be installed in junction boxes mounted at ground level and/or in below-grade vaults where utilities are run below ground.
Fiber drop terminals may be made of injection molded plastic to keep per unit costs as low as possible. Since fiber drop terminals may be exposed to the elements, they may be resistant to water infiltration and/or degradation due to ultraviolet (UV) light. Fiber drop terminal enclosures may be fabricated from UV resistant plastic and/or equipped with gaskets to prevent water infiltration. At times, the plastic used for the enclosure may fatigue and/or crack leading to water and/or water vapor penetration into the interior of the enclosure. The design of existing enclosure mating surfaces, such as gasketed interfaces, may interact in a manner facilitating water and/or water vapor penetration. For example, gasket material may be of an inadequate durometer to provide a weather-tight seal between an enclosure body and/or an enclosure base.
Existing fiber drop terminals may not have sufficient interior space to allow fibers within the enclosures to bend with a radius of at least an industry and/or manufacturer recommended minimum bend radius. When optical fibers are bent with a radius of less than an industry and/or manufacturer recommended minimum, such as 1.75 inches, optical signal losses may result.
Existing fiber drop terminals may have connector orientations that do not facilitate unencumbered and/or ergonomic coupling and/or decoupling of optical fibers/connectors by service and installation personnel (hereafter linesmen). As a result, it may be difficult for a linesman to attach and/or remove connectors in certain situations, such as when servicing a fiber drop terminal mounted on a utility pole using, for example, a ladder and/or a bucket lift.
When fiber drop terminals are deployed in the field, they may need to be tested prior to connecting subscribers to communication services delivered via the fiber drop terminals. Testing may be required to confirm that optical fibers coupled to the fiber drop terminal are operating properly and that connectors and/or receptacles associated with the fiber drop terminal are installed and/or operating correctly. Testing may be performed by injecting a signal onto a fiber at a central office and measuring the signal with a detector at a fiber drop terminal. A linesman may inject a signal onto a fiber at a central office and then drive to a location having a fiber drop terminal. The linesman may climb a pole and connect a detector to an output receptacle on the fiber drop terminal. The linesman may determine if the signal has a desired signal-to-noise ratio. After making the measurement, the linesman may drive back to the central office and connect the test signal to another fiber associated with the fiber drop terminal. The linesman may again drive to the terminal and detect the test signal. If a fiber drop terminal has, for example, eight output receptacles, the linesman may repeat the drive to and from the drop terminal eight times. Testing fiber drop terminals using known techniques may be labor intensive and may consume a lot of fuel due to the back and forth trips between the central office and fiber drop terminal locations.